Increasing popularity of smart phones and other mobile devices, together with increasing use of mobile internet applications have led to an exponential growth of data rate demands on cellular systems generally employing licensed radio spectrum (“licensed spectrum”) resources. At the same time, limited spectrum resources are available to allow mobile network operators (MNOs) to meet current and future data rate demands.
The MNOs are further faced with the challenge of poor indoor coverage, particularly at an edge of a telecommunication system cell. Poor indoor coverage may be a significant challenge for MNOs, as most data traffic and voice calls may originate from indoors.
To address the challenges of meeting ever-increasing data rate demands and poor indoor coverage, some proposed solutions include an increased reliance on femtocells. Generally, femtocells are small-range, low-power cells that may be deployed to enhance indoor coverage and offload some traffic from a macrocell. Offloading traffic to the femtocell may reduce congestion in the macrocell network and thus may help improve the experience for users connected to the telecommunication system via the macrocell. Like femtocells, other small cells such as picocells may also be used to reduce macrocell congestion and/or improve indoor coverage.
The subject matter claimed herein is not limited to embodiments that solve any disadvantages or that operate only in environments such as those described above. Rather, this background is only provided to illustrate one example technology area where some embodiments described herein may be practiced.